Monthly Archives: August 2017

21 Aug

It’s almost that time again!!! The ABSC coaching staff is ready to get the season rolling!

We’re all starting to get a little antsy about getting back to the pool! The good news is that we’ll be back soon, so I hope you’re getting ready for the smell of chlorine and the wet towels all over your house/car/self. Check out some key dates below:

Tuesday, September 5th: First day back for Dawgs, Senior 2, and Senior 1 Swimmers.

All three groups should plan to arrive at 5:30 PM! This includes Senior 2, who will arrive at 5:30 all week. They will then start their normal 6:30 practice time the following week and maintain that all year.

All three groups should bring athletic shoes and clothes, for “dryland” practice

Monday, September 11th: First day back for Gups, Pups, and Superpups swimmers.

All three groups will begin practice at the Ramsey Center at 5:30 PM!. This includes the Gups, who normally practice at the YWCO at 5:00.

Gups will only practice at Ramsey on Monday. They will return to the YWCO for their Wednesday practice and remain there.

Monday, September 11th: New Family Orientation.

Will take place at the Ramsey Center, starting at 5:15 PM.

For new families of all practice groups, including the Gups, but not including the stroke clinic families.

Swimmers will join their practice groups for their swim practice, while parents meet with Jonathan and Mike.

Parents will have a chance to meet and greet their child’s coaches at the conclusion of their child’s practice

Gups and Pups practices will last 1 hour. Superpups and Senior 2 will last an hour and a half. Dawgs and Senior 1 will last roughly 2 hours.

The orientation meeting for parents should last 30 – 45 Minutes

Tuesday, September 12th: First Day of the Fall Splash Session 1 Clinic.

Will begin at 4:00 PM at the YWCO

All swimmers will register the first day. Forms will be emailed ahead of time. Parents should bring forms pre-filled and include a check with their fee, made out to ABSC

The first practice will serve as an evaluation

I hope this helps! Here are a couple of other important dates:

Tuesday, August 29th: ABSC “Back to Swim” Potluck Dinner and Hangout.

Starts at 5:30 PM

Bring a dish of your choice – signup coming soon

Games including frisbee and cornhole, and a surprise coming…

Tuesday, September 5th: First team outfitting for team suits and equipment.

Begins at 5:15 PM at the Ramsey Center in the stands

Team suits will be on hand for try-on and purchase

All necessary equipment will be available – see your swimmers practice group for details

21 Aug

It was a special night for the Athens Bulldog Swim Club as former ABSC swimmer, Paige Wilson (now Paige Wilson Penze), was inducted into the Georgia Aquatic Hall of Fame as a member of the 2017 class. ABSC Head Coach Harvey Humphries was on hand to introduce his former swimmer at the ceremony.

The accomplished Wilson, who went on to swim for the University of Georgia after graduating from Clarke Central High School in Athens, entered the Hall of Fame with two other UGA swim and dive greats: current Head Diving Coach Dan Laak, and former NCAA All-American and American Record holder Elizabeth (Hill) Newman.

Wilson moved from Ohio to Athens, Ga at the beginning of High School. When she arrived, she had already achieved Junior National qualifying times. Coach Harvey was tasked with taking the talented swimmer to the next level in her swimming career.

At the age of 17, Paige became the first ever Olympic trials qualifier for the Athens Bulldog Swim Club! She also achieved several other awards and accomplishments while training with ABSC, including becoming a 4X High School All-American for Clarke Central, and setting state records in the 100 Backstroke in 1987, 1988, and 1989, and in the 100 butterfly in 1988 and 1989.

Paige went on to swim for the University of Georgia, where she would become an SEC Champion in the 100 fly in 1991 and 1992, and would also win the 200 back in 1992. She would go on to be a 21X All-American for the Dawgs, completing her collegiate career in 1993.

Not just a talented athlete, Wilson also experienced enormous success in the classroom. She was listed as an Academic All-American all four years in college, and went on to be named a Women’s NCAA Post-Graduate Scholar — an award achieved by only 30 female athletes, from any sport, across the entire NCAA each year — for her outstanding academic performance.

On the USA Swimming side of things, Paige continued to represent ABSC. Under ABSC’s banner, she went on to be a Long Course National Champion in the 200M backstroke and 100M fly in 1991, the 200M backstroke again in 1992, and the 200M butterfly in 1993. She would go on to compete in the World University Games and the Pan Pacific games in 1993, representing team USA on the international level.

Paige Wilson Penze’s legacy still lives on with ABSC today, as she is the namesake of the “Paige Wilson Award” which is offered every year at ABSC’s end-of-year awards ceremony. The winner of the award, which given to a member of our Senior 1 group every year, is voted upon by members of the Senior group and given to a peer who they deem to be an “excellent role model and outstanding team leader.”

Congratulations to Paige Wilson Penze for her induction into the Georgia Aquatic Hall of Fame, and may she continue to inspire our club for generations to come.

You can see the Georgia Aquatic Hall of Fame Website here: http://gahof.org/

7 Aug

ABSC is back at it again, and Charlie Logan and Jackson Harvin are coming back as champions from one of the biggest meets of their lives!

For the second time this summer, ABSC swimmers had the chance to compete at one of the Zone Championship Meets. Competing for Team Georgia in the Southern Zone Championships, Charlie and Jackson followed up the Open Water Zone Team appearance by Simon Casey, Emma Champer, and Jenna Champer this past June. For a full explanation of what Zones is, see this article from June: You ABSC All-star Swimmers.

This time, the boys are coming home champs! For the 4th time in the last 6 years, team Georgia placed first at the Southern Zone meet, and these two boys played a huge role in the team’s success. Not only did they demonstrate leadership as members of the 15-18 age group, but they also both made finals in almost every event, and both of them finished first overall at the meet in at least one individual and at least one relay! For a full meet recap, see the Georgia Swimming webpage: Georgia Swimming News.

We break down the performance of both swimmers below:

Jackson Harvin:

Jackson sure knows how to start things off with a bang! He wasted absolutely no time making his presence felt at the zone meet by stepping up and winning his very first event, the 200 freestyle! Jackson placed first in prelims with a personal best of 1:56.99, dropping almost a full 4 seconds!!! He followed up his prelims swim by dropping and .03 at finals, winning the event by almost a full second! Jackson quickly became known as one of the fastest swimmers of the meet with that performance.

But Harvin didn’t stop there. He proceeded to qualify for finals in every other event he swam except for two, with one being a 9th place finish (they take top 8). Despite winning the 200 free on Wednesday evening, Jackson’s most impressive performance may have taken place on Thursday night at finals.

Jackson had placed 7th in prelims in the 400 IM, and returned for finals. At finals, Jackson placed 6th overall. Only minutes later, Jackson was asked to race on the 4×100 meter freestyle relay! Tired though he was from the 400 IM, Jackson stepped up to split a lifetime best 53.75 for his leg of that relay (wow that’s fast!!!). For context, he swam a lifetime best 55.10 earlier in the meet on his individual 100 free, and remember these are long course times, so that 53.75 is lightening fast! The relay ended up 1st overall, in large part thanks to Jackson!

Through that relay performance, Jackson showed his grit and determination for team Georgia, and proved why he was an integral part of their victory.

Charlie Logan:

Not to be outdone by his ABSC teammate, Charlie came to race as well! After placing 7th in the 200 free on Wednesday evening, Charlie came back Thursday with a vengeance! He started the meet off as the backstroke leg on the 4×100 medley relay that finished in 1st place for team Georgia, but his luck didn’t stop there.

After placing 1st in prelims for the 200 backstroke that morning with a slight add to his personal best, Charlie had the swim of his life in finals! Determined to win the event, Charlie split a devastatingly fast 1:02.19 on his first 100. Despite that fast first 100, he dug down deep to throw down a 1:04.54 on the second 100, finishing the swim in a personal best time of 2:06.73!!! That swim was a personal best for Charlie by almost 2 seconds, and he won the event by almost 4 seconds!

The good news didn’t stop there, however. Not only did Charlie win the 200 back, that time of 2:06.73 was good enough for Charlie’s first ever Junior National qualifying time! This milestone isn’t achieved by many swimmers, and Charlie’s swim was one that will go down in the ABSC history books!

Charlie finished his meet by placing 2nd in the 100 back (1:00.34), 5th in the 200 IM (2:13.11), and 1st overall again in the 4×50 Medley Relay, swimming the backstroke leg.

To Conclude:

All in all it was a fantastic performance by these two ASBC swimmers for team Georgia, and it’s clear that they played a massive role in the team’s overall victory! Here’s to hoping our team continues to place swimmers on the zone team as we did this year, and the get to experience what these two got to enjoy!

7 Aug

Much like the UGA football team is often able to do, our swim team from Athens, Ga marched into Georgia Tech and competed their tails off, bringing home a 7th place overall finish in the “Large Team Division,” and 8th place out of every team in the state!

Unfortunately, you read that correctly. The growth of our team, mixed with the largest influx of college athletes ABSC has ever registered with our team (35+), resulted in our subsequent “promotion” from the ranks of the medium teams into the territory of the Atlanta based giants.

Had ABSC remained in the medium division, we would have achieved our 6th consecutive trophy at an Age Group State meet with a 2nd place finish (only the Marietta Marlins of the medium division finished ahead of us).

13 year-old Karen Zhao led the way for her age group with a top 20 finish in every event she swam except for one! That amazing streak included eight top 10 finishes on individuals and relays, including a 6th place overall finish in the 100 meter free, finishing in 1:00.48! The 13-14 girls also set a team record in the 4×100 Free relay!

Macy Mullis: led off our 200 free relay on day 1 with a personal best 29.97 in her 50 free, and finished the meet with an almost 4-second drop in the 200 back, going 2:30.68. Brynn Halbach: incredible meet! Best times in almost everything, including a 7.02 drop in the 200 fly (2:35.86), and 4.02 drop in the 400 free (4:52.57). Ava Kennedy: 14th overall in the 50 free, and major contributor on all relays, including a personal best split in the 4×100 free relay by 3 seconds!! Emily Schulz: excellent butterfly swimmer competed in the 100 and 200 fly, including a personal best in the 100!

13 – 14 Boys:

13 year-old Gavin Jones led his age group with personal best times in every single event he swam! The distance specialist began his meet with his best race of the weekend, a 17th place finish (6th among 13-year-olds) and a time drop of 46.02 seconds in the 1500 meter free!!

Will Foggin: Also achieved all personal best times, including a 17.44 drop in his 400 IM, and a 17.19 drop in his 400 free! Julian Attaway: almost all best times. 6.96 drop in his 200 fly, and 9.50 improvement in the 400 free. Crow Thorsen: huge improvements on distance races, including a 34.52 second drop in his 1500 free, and 4.58 on his 400 IM! Henry Logan: Lightening fast 200 backstroke, coming in at 2:26.96 for a huge time drop. Jackson Bates: First ever long course meet (he had short course conversion times) and had some huge swims! He went 1:16.85 in the 100 breast for 32nd, and 2:49.39 in the 200 breast for 27th! Payton Morrison: The unfortunate right-before-state birthday, but still swam a strong 100 breast, then went to GRPA state the next day and won the 50 breast!

11-12 Girls:

Eileen Brook starred for the 11-12 girls, seeing personal best times in all but her last event, and placing top 10 in all but 1 individual event! She even achieved 3rd overall in the 200 back with a time of 2:42.04. What an incredible meet!

Jenna Champer: An 11 second drop and 7th overall finish in the 800 free @ 10:19.15, and a 9th overall finish in the 400 free with an 8.79 second drop (5:03.23). Ansley Halbach: personal best times in every event, including a time drop of 6.86 in the 200 back, and 11.15 seconds in the 200 fly! Emma Champer: time drops in almost every event, including a huge 36.79 second drop in the 400 free (5:13.47). She was top 20 in all but 2 events. Hannah Torres: Swam 6 events in her first ever state meet, and finished the weekend with an 8.35 second drop in the 200 fly! Rebecca Pursner: personal best on the 4×50 medley relay breastroke split, and dropped a whopping 13.84 seconds in her 200 fly! Ginny Thosen: time drops in almost every event, top 20 in all but 2 events, and a 4th place overall finish in the 200 fly (3:04.96) with a 6.54 second time drop! She also finished 6th in the 100 fly with a 4.25 second time drop!

11-12 Boys:

McKee Thorsen took charge for our 11-12 boys group, going personal best times in all but 1 event! He finished top 20 in every event, and top 10 in 10 events. He finished 5th overall in the 200 fly (2:42.24), and 7th in the 400 IM with a drop of 3.15 seconds. The 11-12 boys relays were our strongest at the meet, finishing 4th, 5th, 5th, and 3rd in the four relay events! McKee was on all 4.

Daniel Huang: meet of his life! Personal bests on all but 2 events, including top 10 finishes in 11 events! He finished 7th in the 200 free with a 2.4 second time drop, and 8th in the 400 free with a 12.04 second drop. Simon Casey: finished 11th in the 50 and 12th in the 200 butterfly events. Dropped 36.46 on his 1500 free, and 6.99 on his 400 free. Garrett Kennedy: Huge drop in the 400 IM (11.88 seconds) for 20th overall. 5.84 second drop in the 200 fly, and a member on all 4 top-5 relays. Eli Bates: Top 20 in all 3 breaststroke events, including 8th overall in the 200 breast (3:24.17). James Xiao: Top 20 finishes in all but 1 event, top 10 in 8 events. 4th overall in the 200 fly (2:39.46), 5th in the 1500 free (19:20.88), and a 4.86 second drop in the 400 IM for 9th!

10&Under Girls:

Ella Dillon stormed through the state meet for the 10&under girls, achieving personal best times in all but 1 event! She finished top 20 in 5 events, placing as high as 14th in the 50 fly (38.76). Her most impressive swim was a 14.14 second time drop in the 200 IM for a time of (3:17.89).

Aubree-Clare Flores: competed in her first ever long course meet, and was incredible! She placed 25th overall in the 50 back at 41.15, and swam an impressive 1:21.24 in the 100 free. Charlotte Foggin: swam her first ever state meet! Competed in the 200 free, 200 IM and a relay, swimming a particularly strong 3:06.03 in the 200 free.

10&Under Boys:

Parker Fagrellswam an incredible meet, scoring 60 points and putting himself in the running for the high point award! He finished top 10 in all but one event, including a 2nd place finish in the 50 back (36.26), 3rd place in the 50 free (32.14), and 3rd in the 100 free (1:10.33). Those are insanely fast times for a 10 year-old! He achieved a personal best time in every single event.

Ryan Xiao: Finished top 20 in all but 20 events, and top 10 in 6 of them! Ryan placed 5th in the 100 breast (1:36.60), 6th in the 50 breast (44.48), and dropped 4.39 to move up to 6th in the 200 free at 2:40.01. Jack Yu: top 10 finishes in 5 events, and personal bests in almost all of them, including 1.33 second drop to come 9th in the 50 breast at 45.10.

Special Thanks:

To all of the swimmers that traveled to Atlanta just to help us field more relays! Anna Claire Adolphson, Kyle Bates, Crenshaw Halbach, Shaan Kanaan, and Luke Phillips. Every single one of these swimmers that came either swam a personal best time on their relay splits, or competed in their first ever long course meet. Congrats!

It was a fantastic meet, and I know we’ve got more amazing swims to come for all of these kids in the future!

A big part of swimming with ABSC is creating memories, and pictures play a part in reminding us where we've been. Our Shutterfly site has everything from the most recent meet to to a "Splash from the Past." To start browsing these images, click the link above.

ABSC has been a part of the Athens community for over 30 years. We believe that healthy lifestyles lead to healthy communities, which is why we are proud to join other local organizations in promoting athletics for all ages. Click here to learn more about our Partners in Fitness.

Need to buy a team cap and suit? Want to look up a time from a past season? Interested in finding what's going on in the wider world of swimming? You've come to the right place. For answers to these questions and more, click the link above.

Still not sure what it's like to swim for ABSC? Well, if a picture says a thousand words, a video says even more. Every year we document our season, and if you take a moment to watch, we think you'll get an idea of what we're all about. Click the link above to find out more.

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About ABSC

Athens Bulldog Swim Club

We are a non-profit USAS registered swimming organization based at the University of Georgia’s Gabrielsen Natatorium and have served the swimming needs of the greater Athens area for over 20 years. We offer youth swimming programs ranging from beginner classes to athletes competing at the highest level, and emphasize the development of the whole child.